Authors and Contributors this page: T.F. Mills
Page created 15 July 2000. Corrected and updated 18.10.2005
 
 
23rd London Regiment
[7th Surrey Rifle Volunteers]
1859-1961
 
United Kingdom 
  Titles & Lineage
  History & War Service
  Battle Honours
  Colours, Standards and Guidons

  Badges and Uniforms
  Colonels
 Traditions
 Bibliography

Note: This is a battalion history of the part-time reserves, which are normally liable for full-time active service only in an emergency. See the main regimental page(s) as linked below for more information.
How to find information about individuals who served in this corps
 
  Titles and Lineage English County Index
Alphabetic Index of Titles
1859.11.30 7th Surrey Rifle Volunteer Corps
raised as a single coy at Southwark
1860 five more coys raised (HQ at Southwark)
1861.03.09 unattached 24th Surrey RVC formed at Southwark from members of the Temperance League
1862 24th Surrey RVC disbanded
1880.03 absorbed 26th Surrey RVC at Clapham from 1st Admin Bn Surrey Vols; now ten coys with HQ at Southwark (six coys at Southwark and four coys at Clapham)
1881.07.01 volunteer battalion of The East Surrey Regiment
1887.12.01 4th Volunteer Battalion, The East Surrey Regiment
1900 cyclist coy formed at Southwark
1902 HQ moved to St. John's Hill, Clapham Junction
1908.04.01 23rd (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment
HQ and A-H Coys at St. John's Hill
1915.03 1/23rd (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment
renumbered on formation of 2/23rd Battalion
1916.07.07 transferred to the corps of The East Surrey Regiment
1920.02.07 23rd (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment
reconstituted in T.A. with HQ at St. John's Hill, Clapham Junction
1922 23rd London Regiment
1927.10 23rd London Regiment, The East Surrey Regiment
1937.08.10 7th (23rd London) Battalion, The East Surrey Regiment
1938.11.01 42nd (7th (23rd London) Bn, The East Surrey Regiment) Battalion, Royal Tank Corps
1939.04 42nd (7th (23rd London) Bn, The East Surrey Regiment) Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment
formed duplicate 48th Royal Tank Regiment
1939? 42nd (7th (23rd London) Bn, The East Surrey Regiment) Royal Tank Regiment
1947.04.01 reconstituted in T.A. with HQ at St. Johns Hill?
1956.09.01 23rd London Regiment, The East Surrey Regiment
1961.05.01 amalgamated with 6th Battalion, The East Surrey Regiment, to form
4th Battalion, The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment
  History (Links) & War Service Introduction to Volunteers
History:
The London Regiment, by Chris Baker (The British Army in the Great War)
The London Regiment, by Brad Chappell (The Regimental Warpath 1914-1918)
   
Deployment and War Service of Units:
  1/23rd Battalion [1914-1919]
  2/23rd Battalion [1914-1919]
  23rd (Reserve) Battalion [1915-1916]
  42nd Royal Tank Regiment [1939-1944]
  48th Royal Tank Regiment [1939-1945]
 
Biography and Gallantry Awards:
[no external sites have been found]
Associations, Forums and Re-Enactors:
[no external sites have been found]
Museums, Monuments, Memorials and Chapels:
[no external sites have been found]
  Battle Honours Index of Battle Honours
Index of Wars

South Africa 1900-02

The Great War (3 battalions):  Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Flers-Courcelette, Le Transloy, Messines 1917, Cambrai 1917, St. Quentin, Ancre 1918, Albert 1918, Bapaume 1918, Ypres 1918, Courtrai, France and Flanders 1915-18, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1916-17, Gaza, Nebi Samwil, Jerusalem, Jericho, Jordan, Palestine 1917-18

The Second World War:  Honorary Distinction:  Badge of the Royal Tank Regiment with year-dates "1941-45" and three scrolls:  "N-W Europe", "N Africa", and "Italy"

  Colours, Standards and Guidons Introduction to Colours
Record of Colours:
  Uniforms and Badges
   
Badges:
Uniform: green (1859-1881), scarlet (1881- ); facings: scarlet (1859-1881), white (1881- )
   
   
     
   
   
  Honorary Colonels Index of Royal Colonels
1889.01.16 Sydney James (Stern), 1st Baron Wandsworth, TD
1912.02.10 Hon. Col. B.T.L. Thomson, VD
1928.04.18 Maj. Hon. John Jacob (Astor), 1st Baron Astor of Hever, CMG, MP [also 519 (Kent and Sussex) Coast Regt, RA]
1949
  Traditions
 
Motto:
Nicknames:
Anniversaries:
Freedoms:
Marches:
Musicians:
Mascot:
Miscellaneous Tradition Links:
  Bibliography How To Find Books
Regimental Journal:

   
Full Histories:
Shaw, R.J. Herbert. The 23rd London Regiment, 1798-1919. London : Times Pub. Co., 1936.
Short Histories:
Larking, Albert. History of the 4th V.B. East Surrey Regiment, including the Newington Surry Volunteers, Southwark and Lambeth Rifle Corps, 7th Surrey Rifle Volunteer Corps, 26th Surrey Rifle Volunteer Corps, now the 23rd Battn. The London Regiment. London : Gale & Polden, 1912.
Larking, Albert. History of the 23rd London regiment ... formerly 4th V.B. East Surrey Regiment, the 7th and 26th Surrey Volunteer Corps, Southwark and Lambeth rifle Corps, successors of the Newington Surry Volunteers. [Clapham Junction : printed by Rangercroft], 1915.
   
War Histories:
42nd Royal Tank Regiment, 1938-1944. Clapham Junction : [s.n.], 1951.
Gudgin, Peter. With Churchills to war : 48th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment at war, 1939-45. Thrupp, Stroud : Sutton Pub., 1996. ISBN: 0750912391